Mentum

Mentum with broadly rounded or part trifid median tooth, flanked by 6 pairs of dark lateral teeth, the outermost 3 part fused and outside slope of remaining mentum. Ventromental plates twice as wide as high wide with few coarse striae more distinct posteriorly.

Maxilla

Palp short.

Body

Posterior parapod claws simple.

Notes

Taxonomic Notes

Cryptotendipes larvae are distinguished from all other genera of Chironomini - with the exception of Microchironomus and some Cladopelma - by the enlarged outer mental teeth, set forward in relation to the slope of the other lateral teeth. They differ from the other 2 genera in having the second pair of lateral teeth set well back making the central part of the mentum much more steeply sloping than the lateral regions.

Ecological Notes

Larvae of Cryptotendipes inhabit substrata of sand and mud in lakes and rivers.
Holarctic, Oriental and northern Australian distribution. According to Sæther (1977b), five species are known from the Nearctic only, four from the Palaearctic only, whilst one occurs in both regions.